Mind Body Soul Summer: Family Obstacle Fun

We know that being active is important for our physical health, but did you know being active is beneficial for our mental health too?  This is especially true for children.  Being physically active provides children the opportunity to build confidence, manage any anxiety and depression, increase self-esteem and also support their cognitive development.  Exercising regularly can also help improve sleep and overall mood.  Who wouldn’t want that?  

Materials:

A driveway or sidewalk, chalk, other elements are optional (hula hoop, ball, jump rope, etc.)  Obstacle courses can be created anywhere.  For our obstacle course, we’re going to use our driveway.  

Instructions:

Here’s a simple and fun way to get the whole family up and moving!  

1. Think of some physical challenges your family could do.  For example, jump on one leg for thirty seconds, hula hoop while singing the A B C’s,  walk like a crab in a circle three times, etc. 
2. Once you have your challenges, create a starting line on your driveway using chalk.  Add arrows, shapes, colors, etc. and design a user-friendly course that will work for all ages.  

Take it a little further:

Too easy for older children or adults?  Here’s a simple way to make it more challenging.  Ask them to multiply each challenge by 2, 3, or 4.  For example, “do ten situps” would turn into doing twenty, thirty or forty.  

Try incorporating a timed element..complete the obstacle course is one minute or less!